The Wedding
by sammie28
Summary: Kate's oldest nephews, triplets, recall the ohsosmooth path to the Gibbs' wedding. Their POV, of course. :D
1. Chapter 1

**The Wedding**  
by Sammie

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. If I did, would Kate be dead? bares fangs With much, much thanks to "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" for much of the inspiration.  
Rating: K, T max.  
Spoilers: Um...Seasons 1-2, I suppose.

Summary: Kate's oldest nephews, triplets, recall the oh-so-smooth path to the Gibbs' wedding. Their POV, of course.

A/N: I felt I need to write something fun after I killed Kate and Gibbs in "For a Moment."  
That said, I'm working on a piece on Gibbs' history - his time at NCIS, his ex-wives, and so on and so forth. Since it's too difficult to attempt to harmonize what was said in Season 3 with what was given us Seasons 1-2, I am simply going with earlier canon, which includes three marriages all ending in divorce.

I am well aware that Ducky introduced Gibbs to #3. I simply believe that, since he had known Gibbs since the mid-1990s, he would know wife #2 also.

Gibbs is a little chattier than usual.

* * *

**The Wedding**  
by Alan, Bill, and Charlie Martin

To AUNT KATE, who loved us despite herself,  
and  
To UNCLE JETHRO, who loved her despite us

* * *

_"JETHRO!" _

_"I hate shopping. I'm not going." _

_"You used to buy your clothes yourself." _

_"And you have better taste than I do, and you find them cheaper." _

_"There's no point in them being cheaper if you're not there to try them on!" _

_"You know my sizes, though!" _

_"Jethro, you know that our time out is the only time we have alone." _

_"Kate, you know I hate shopping!" _

_"And you know I like it when you come with me!" _

_"So why'd you marry me?" There was a long silence. "Huh?" _

_Aunt Kate glared. "That's what I'm WONDERING."_

* * *

Uncle Jethro was a man's man, the sort who put macho men like James Bond to shame. He kept a very common sense haircut (one Aunt Kate always wanted him to change). He had no idea what designer clothes were and bought all his in shades of black, white, and tan - and at Sears - because they'd be durable, inexpensive, and always matched. He drank strong black coffee and rarely spoke, and he could have saved Tokyo just by glaring at Godzilla if he wanted to. 

Unlike Pierce Brosnan, he could drive a stick shift car and make it do things even the Bond car couldn't do - all the while with Aunt Kate yelling from the passenger's side that he had homicidal tendencies. He built a seaworthy boat by hand. He had a great football arm, too. He also had all the bad habits many men have, like leaving the toliet seat up.

Our Aunt Kate was the youngest of five Todd children, our mother being the oldest. When Dad died and Mom sent us to live with our grandparents, we were barely a year old. Aunt Kate was sixteen and our uncles had left home. She was like a second mother, particularly when Grandfather and Grandmother had to work, but she could be more stern than either of them about eating vegetables.

She was also lots of fun, and she taught us to play football her last summer before she went to law school, just like our uncles had taught her. She was the best, and she could stand her ground in a family full of men and still win. It wasn't that surprising to us that she could be an agent and endure all the stuff up with with she put. Uncle Jay, a twinkle in his eye, used to say proudly that we had trained her well. Without us, he'd say, she would have never been able to last in all those man-dominated jobs. Or in her marriage.

Aunt Kate and Grandmother would just roll their eyes.

- x - x - x - x - x -

Uncle Jethro had a terrible track record with women. He was middle-aged and had been married three times to women who cheated on him and then left him, but not before whacking him with some piece of sports equipment. He hated to talk about anything, including his feelings, and until Aunt Kate came along and made him, he never talked really to any of his wives or to his team.

Aunt Kate, though, had been reared with three older brothers and then the three of us, and she had plenty of experience dealing with men like Uncle Jethro and never let him get away with it. Although it took awhile, he came to appreciate it.

* * *

It had all really begun the day one of Uncle Jethro's old girlfriends, a redhead named Jenny, decided to try the new Italian place - Giorgio's. DIANE Giorgio's. Formerly Diane Gibbs, or, as we heard Agent DiNozzo refer to her once, "Seven iron #2". (He'd decided that, although Uncle Jethro said his first TWO marriages were all based on appearances, there was no point in naming two wives with the same title.) 

#2 had commented on Jen's red hair in a pixie cut (hence Agent DiNozzo's nickname "Pixie Hair"), and they'd struck up a conversation about being true redheads and about NCIS...and it didn't take that long to find out they knew a PARTICULAR agent in common.

And that was when Dr. Mallard had come in with Agent DiNozzo and spotted them, the restaurant owner and the agent, chatting away.

Jen had spotted them first and waved them over before Dr. Mallard could grab Tony and run. Dr. Mallard NEVER runs... But once caught, he was determined to handle this with dignity. "Hello, Diane. Jennifer."

"Dr. Mallard," Diane greeted politely, as Jen smiled, "Ducky."

"I must admit," he said carefully. "I am a bit surprised to see you two...conversing."

"Oh," Diane said with a cheery smile. "We have a LOT in common."

It was then that Dr. Mallard was struck with a brilliant idea.

* * *

Dr. Mallard had mentioned once, when we went to visit Aunt Kate and Uncle Jethro, how grateful he was that Uncle Jethro had finally settled down. For real. Permanently. He loved Uncle Jethro like a son, and he was well aware that Uncle Jethro took unnecessary risks and ate unhealthily and all that. He could lecture Uncle Jethro when he was alive, but he wasn't around all the time. Somebody had to take care of Uncle Jethro. It's why he introduced a beautiful redhead to Uncle Jethro. 

Of coure, we all knew how well that one worked out. Baseball Bat #3 (as Tony called her) managed to succeed where Seven-Iron #2 hadn't - #3 connected with Uncle Jethro's head, while #2 just chased him. (We thought about cracking a joke and saying that Uncle Jethro was getting slower by age, but Agent Tony shook his head vigorously at us. Seems he cracked that joke before and got a head whack for it.)

Having failed as a matchmaker, but still determined to get Uncle Jethro married off successfully, Dr. Mallard just worried and worried...until that day he saw Agent Jen Shepard and Seven-Iron #2 at Giorgio's.

Dr. Mallard's mom was the type who watched all sorts of kinds of TV. She never missed "WWF Smackdown!" and, for an old woman, she was unusually in love with "One Tree Hill" on the old Warner Brothers network. (Bill asked at this point whether or not there was really only one tree on the hill, and how did a whole town fit on the hill, but Alan poked him and told him to hush up and not to interrupt Dr. Mallard.)

She also watched all the daytime shows like Jerry Springer and Montel and Maury Povich, and it was on one of those days where Dr. Mallard overhead one of the topics. "Are you still friends with your ex? Do you want them to find true love, but feel there is one thing they have to change?"

Pixie Hair meeting Seven-Iron #2 was like a sign from heaven. Or at least that's how Dr. Mallard interpreted it.

So he rounded up all the women in Uncle Jethro's life to have an impromptu informative session. All the ex-wives, Pixie Hair, and a couple others. He just meant to get a woman's perspective on what was going on with Uncle Jethro. He sure didn't count on the man in question showing up at his house.

"Duck, where were you?" Uncle Jethro replied sharply, standing there on the threshold, glaring at the elderly medical examiner. "Balboa called you to come in to look at a body. Tried your home, tried your cell - you didn't respond to either. We were all starting to get worried."

"Oh Jethro, I am sorry," Ducky said apologetically, then paused a moment. "Dr. Gutterman would do a marvelous job with the body."

Gibbs blinked, looking at him in shock for a brief second. "DUCKY! I expected you to come!"

"Well, Jethro," Ducky replied, seemingly in a big rush to shoo Gibbs away, "this is my day off. And Dr. Gutterman is a fine medical examiner."

"Ducky," Gibbs said suddenly, frowning. "Is something wrong?" He leaned towards his old friend, the tiny whisper of concern. "Is there somebody in the house?" Uncle Jethro, having been a Marine MP for so long and then a NCIS agent, had a particularly suspicious nature.

"No, no, nothing like that," Ducky replied emphatically. "Jethro, I really must go. I'm in the middle of something."

"Something more important than a dead Marine?" Gibbs asked sharply.

"Yes," Ducky replied automatically, and then paused. He suddenly decided that perhaps it would be better if Uncle Jethro just heard all these things for himself. He opened the door more widely. "I'll call Agent Balboa and let him know that Dr. Gutterman will take over, and you can come with me." He ushered the man inside. "Come. It will be good for you."

"What?"

Ducky paused, and then said kindly, "Jethro, please understand that I am very, very concerned for you. I'm not always going to be around to stitch up your head wounds and to make sure you eat healthy foods."

Gibbs looked at him, puzzled.

The ME waved him in, into the living room.

Where his three ex-wives and Jen Shepard sat. Gibbs turned to Ducky in betrayed astonishment. "Ducky!"

"Jethro," Ducky tried to say consolingly. "It's not unknown that you've had relationship troubles. Elizabeth was a wonderful, sweet girl that I introduced you to! Something obviously happened. But I can't be here forever, and I can't even control what you eat. I'd like to see you successfully married off."

"DUCKY!"

"And when I discovered that your ex-wives had met each other and got along so well, and that Agent Shepard knew them - "

"HOW DID YOU FIND OUT!"

"Oh, it's all over NCIS by now," Ducky replied.

"I am going to KILL Tony," Gibbs muttered.

"Jethro, it's for your good."

"I need another wife like I need...Ari Haswari!"

"Well, Jethro, we need to discuss this obsession with Ari, indeed, but let's take one problem at a time, shall we?"

"DUCKY!"

"Jethro, don't you want to be a better man?"

"Why don't you just save the time and club me with a piece of sports equipment," Gibbs replied sharply.

"Sense of humor was always dark," Seven-iron #2 grumbled.

The front door opened, and in trooped Abby and Ziva. "Oh hey, Gibbs," Abby bounced cheerily, giving the agent an affectionate peck on the cheek.

Ziva gave him a warm, welcoming smile, then pointed to a plate of ethnic Israeli desserts. "Gibbs, I made those, if you'd like to try them. They aren't overly sweet."

"Abby! David!" Gibbs turned to face Ducky. "They have nothing to do with my relationship troubles."

"Oh, I know that," Ducky replied, waving. "But they have worked with you so long, they must have something to contribute." He indicated Jen Shepard. "That's why Jenny is so valuable to us, since she knows you both personally and professionally."

"Failure in both areas," Jen grumbled, then downed a large shot of whiskey. "Fill me up."

Fake-Appearances #1 patted her consolingly and filled her glass.

"Why don't you just get Kate in here and finish me off?" Gibbs exclaimed.

"Unfortunately Caitilin had to rush back to headquarters to finish her paperwork," Ducky replied somberly. "She said she wanted to finish that case report to turn in to you before the end of the day." He gave Uncle Jethro a scolding look. "You know that she was going to visit her mother and her nephews this past weekend, and yet you would not give her an extension on that case report."

"Oh, work hours," #1 called. "He's got to fix this obsession with work hours. It's starting to affect not just him. Poor Kate."

"I'm leaving," Gibbs groaned, turning towards the door.

"Oh, that's a problem," Jen replied. "That's his solution to any relationship problem. Walk away and ignore it."

"You tell him, sister," Baseball Bat #3 replied, slapping a high-five with Jen.

"Or to glare," Officer David replied. "The glaring is a bit...troublesome."

Ducky waved to a chair. "Sit, Jethro. Just sit and listen for a little bit. Now." He waved to the other women. "Who would like to start?"

"Well," Baseball Bat #3 began. "This coffee thing. It drove me insane. Can't touch his coffee. Can't waft his coffee's smell. Can't look at his coffee!" she exclaimed. "Yet he'd just pick up my water and drink it."

"When he goes after my food I just wave my knife at him," Officer David replied, shrugging.

"I ought to get a knife," Baseball Bat #3 replied, nodding.

"Why bother when you have that baseball bat?" Gibbs grumbled.

"My coffee and my food," Seven-Iron #2 complained, ignoring Gibbs. "If I left a plate out, bye bye food! It didn't matter what it was unless it was one of my tofu wraps."

Abby squealed, leaning forward in anticipationg. "Do you get them from Julie's Kitchen?" she asked delightedly.

"Yes!" Seven Iron #2 exclaimed, grinning. "I love Julie's."

"Kate and I go there all the time," Abby grinned. "We love their tofu wraps. And they deliver now. Kate got them to deliver to NCIS."

Gibbs made a face.

"They do?" Seven Iron #2 replied, her eyes brightening, and then her face fell. "I can't do that one...I can't have them delivering to the restaurant." As Abby's face fell, the redhead hugged her shoulders. "That's all right. Thank you so much for letting me know."

"Oh, I've got one," Fake-Appearances #1 complained. "This absolute inability to smile longer than two seconds. This constant grouchy, growling look. It's unbearable."

Gibbs glared.

"See?" she exclaimed. As the others nodded their agreement, #1 continued, "And then when I suggest we go out to a restaurant or to some kind of weekend getaway, he freaks out. After that one really bad case, I suggested we take a trip to England, he has a cow."

"And when he gets like that, he heads straight for the boat," Seven-Iron #2 finished. "No conversation. Just straight to the boat."

"Ladies, ladies," Jen replied, speaking up. "Let's not forget that NCIS agents - Jethro included - has a very trying, difficult job. That boat's his way of relaxing. But, I totally agree on that going out thing. Every time we went out on a dinner date he always looked like he was being so put upon to be charming in a nice restaurant."

Gibbs slumped into his seat, a "kill me now" look on his face.

"He forgot my birthday," Abby grumped. "He forgot my birthday!"

"Oh honey," Based-on-Apperances #1 replied consolingly, hugging her maternally. "Here. Have a cupcake."

"Please, please," Ziva began sitting up. "Let us remember, as Jen said, that we agents have a very difficult job. It's hard to focus when there are killers and molesters and everyone on the loose. I do believe that part of Jethro's intensity is what makes him such a fine investigator."

"Thank you, Ziva."

"But can somebody tell me what is up with those head smacks?" Ziva huffed. "Did he head smack you?" she asked Jen, who nodded. "Me, too. And he threatens to do that to Abby, too. What's up with that! The only agent he hasn't smacked is Kate, yes?"

Uncle Jethro stood up now, looking at the four redheads sitting on the couch. "You want an apology? I am sorry. I am sorry things did not work out. Happy?"

* * *

By the time Uncle Jethro had returned to the office, he was feeling annoyed, and a little down - but no longer mad. Dr. Mallard meant well. As for his ex-es, well - Grandmother never worried that Aunt Kate had married a man who didn't want the same things she did - marriage, family, children. It was a testament to Uncle Jethro's ability to commit that he'd married three times. Commitment wasn't his problem. His inability to read women was. 

This was all running through Uncle Jethro's mind as he went back to the office, an hour late. By then, Agent DiNozzo and Agent McGee and Aunt Kate were terribly worried - Dr. Mallard hadn't answered the calls, and then their boss had disappeared for an hour.

"What happened?" Tony asked, coming around the desk, concerned. "Are you all right?"

Gibbs bunched up his jacket and threw it onto the chair, then put his gun into his desk drawer.

His team exchanged looks. "Boss?" Tony asked.

"Ducky's got all my ex-wives at his house talking about how to try to fix my relationship problems."

McGee looked immensely puzzled for a moment, and Tony just laughed. "Ducky always tries so hard. He doesn't know quite when to give up the - " He could see Gibbs' glare. "I'm sure he means well." He quickly returned to his seat.

Uncle Jethro groaned and wiped his hands tiredly over his face. "I've just accepted I'm going to be alone."

"Oh, boss, I'm sure that's not true," McGee stammered. This emotional territory thing was not his _forte_. "I'm sure there's the right one out there."

"A redhead, too," Tony added.

Gibbs gave them a glare, but without the requisite force, it seemed far more to be masking a small sense of gratitude. Both Agent McGee and Agent DiNozzo took it as a silent thanks from Uncle Jethro.

"Oh, what a load of crap," Aunt Kate declared sarcastically, looking up from her work. It didn't help her mood that finishing her case report meant that she was going to have to come out to see us a day late. "'The right one's out there'," she scoffed, imitating at McGee. "Well, you know what, the right one could be under your nose and you know what, you're not going to find her."

McGee gasped, staring at Aunt Kate in shock. Tony's eyes went wide.

Uncle Jethro stared at her for a moment. "If you wanted time off to go to Ducky's meeting, you should have just asked," he snapped.

"Let me tell you something," Aunt Kate replied, undaunted, getting out of her chair and coming around to face down her then-boss. pointing a finger at Uncle Jethro's nose. "You've created this image of a nice, quiet woman who'll be happy keeping house for you and with whom you don't have to share your life."

"No," Uncle Jethro retorted, having recovered enough from his shock at Aunt Kate's statement to glare.

"Yes," Aunt Kate insisted. "But seriously, Gibbs - " that's what she called him then " - if you want a maid, you're going to have to PAY for a maid."

Uncle Jethro tried glaring at her in a last, desperate attempt to get her to be quiet, but Aunt Kate was entirely undaunted.

"You think that as long as you provide a woman food and a shelter and take care of her and protect her and you two have children then everything will be fine and dandy and you won't have to share your life and your doubts and emotions with her. You're supposed to be the 'macho man' because 'that's how it's supposed to be'," Kate replied.

Tony hid behind his computer, hoping that it would protect him from any bullets that might start flying.

McGee wanted to do the same, except he really loved computers.

"So when your wife wants to TALK to you about something, you shut off and ignore her, and all these women you've married are too nice to say something when you glare and ignore them, and then you're shocked when it all builds up and then they explode."

"One of them hit me on the head," Uncle Jethro retorted, glaring. "And one of the others TRIED."

"I'm not saying what they did was right," Aunt Kate replied, undaunted. "You need a woman with patience, more than they did, but you need a strong woman who tells you exactly how it is. But I'll bet you're that you're afraid of somebody like that. Because you're afraid she might be...RIGHT...and maybe you might be able to DEPEND on her...but that would involve you opening your mouth and talking about your FEELINGS!"

"A-MEN!" shouted Agent Sammie Kibbshipp, who was evasdropping from behind the partition.

Tony and McGee finished buttoning their shirts over their Kevlar vests and put on hard hats and braced for the Gibbs-plosion.

"YOU...you have a problem with women." Aunt Kate straightened, crossing her arms

"I do not have a problem with women. I just haven't found the right one," Uncle Jethro had replied at the time.

It was at that moment, though, that Uncle Jethro considered that maybe - just maybe - he had found the right one. Only she was off-limits. She was on his team, and he was the boss, and Uncle Jethro took that as a sign that he wasn't supposed to get involved with her. At least that's what he told Dr. Mallard.

Of course, when Director Morrow reassigned Aunt Kate to head up a profiling unit, Ducky promptly went to him and said pointedly that this was a heavenly sign that he now had no excuses.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Wedding**

Disclaimer in Part 1

* * *

They'd been dating a couple months when Uncle Jethro decided he'd give this marriage thing another go - he'd known Aunt Kate quite awhile already. He'd asked Grandmother for permission, and then he'd asked Dr. Mallard, his oldest friend (in both senses of "oldest") and a good friend to our aunt, to go along with him to help find a ring for Aunt Kate.

He'd finally bought one and had brought it in to NCIS to get one last opinion, but that turned out to be a huge mistake. While Dr. Mallard was looking at it, Abby got a good look at it and figured out what was happening nd blurted it out to the entire bullpen: "IS THAT RING FOR KATE!"

"Hey, boss, you going to try this marriage thing again?" Tony ribbed, then quickly shut up when Uncle Jethro glared.

"Congratulations, boss!" McGee was just as excited. "I'm sure you can make it work this time. I mean," he replied, instantly realizing his ginormous faux pas, "I mean...um, not that you didn't make it work the other times...maybe it wasn't entirely...I'm sure you'll be very happy."

All the while, Abby was bouncing up and down, from excitement or from caffeine overload, chanting, "Gibbs is going to ask Kate to marry him! Gibbs is going to ask Kate to marry him! Gibbs is going to ask Kate to marry him!"

"Maybe that means he'll go easy on me," Tony mused, and then brightened at the thought, then joined Abby, bouncing around the office, hand in hand, cheering, "Gibbs is going to ask Kate to marry him!"

Kate just happened to enter the bullpen then, headed back to her own, new team, and Tony hollered at her across the way, "Will you marry Gibbs?"

"Tony!" Abby scolded. "Why did you do that! You know how much Gibbs likes to propose!"

There were snickers, and a couple comments about "practice making perfect" until a sweeping Gibbs glare shut them all up.

The whole bullpen was on their feet, watching, quietly eager, and Uncle Jethro was looking pretty exasperated, and Aunt Kate was just standing there, staring at them all dumbfoundedly.

Abby went over, catching up Kate's hands in anticipation. "Kate?"

"YES!" she laughed, and Abby and Aunt Kate just hugged each other and laughed, hopping up and down and hugging as the entire bullpen was cheering and clapping and whistling.

Needless to say, Uncle Jethro hadn't wanted it to go this way.

* * *

Proposing to somebody in public, Uncle Jethro once said, was a dumb, dumb idea. Skywriters, banners in ballparks - they were a waste of money and most of all, you'd never get a straight answer. Most women would never want to embarass their boyfriends in front of people, and what if Brunehilde really wanted to say 'no'? She'd not do it in front of all those beach suntanners who saw the skywriting plane. They'd toss her out to the sharks.

He was pretty sure that Aunt Kate was just saving him face, and the more he thought about it, the more sure he was that Aunt Kate didn't really want to marry him. She was young - much younger than he, beautiful, and with her whole life and career ahead of her. So he made up his mind to go to her apartment and give her one more chance to say no. This time, it wasn't Tony proposing for him, and it wasn't Kate answering to Abby instead of to him.

"Nobody's here," he began awkwardly, standing in front of her with his hands in his pockets.

"I can see that," Aunt Kate replied, smiling up at him tenderly.

"Now THINK," Uncle Jethro said firmly. "One more time. Do you really, really want to marry ME?"

She was shocked at his question. "What! YES!"

"Are you very, very sure." Because Uncle Jethro wasn't sure she did.

"YES!" Aunt Kate shouted, her initial shock beginning to turn into annoyance. For some reason, Uncle Jethro never seemed to believe that Aunt Kate really loved him. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Why WOULD you?"

"JETHRO GIBBS!" she hollered. "Give me the d-mn ring." She snatched it from him and shoved it onto her finger, then glared at him. Again.

* * *

Unfortunately for Uncle Jethro, Memorial Day was in a few weeks, and Grandmother and Aunt Kate thought that was a fabulous time to bring Uncle Jethro to meet the rest of the family. Aunt Kate had tried to bring him before, but they got so few days off and the one time she could come he had to go to a terrorism conference. This was the first time anybody was going to get to meet him, except Grandmother.

Uncle Jethro had done a round-trip to our home, flying in and out the same day, to ask Grandmother for permission to marry our aunt. We three had been on a camping trip with Uncle John, our middle uncle, and our cousins. When we discovered that we men of the Todd family had been "conveniently" away when Jethro Gibbs came, we were unimpressed. We were sure somebody as old as he certainly didn't deserve our aunt Kate and his "sneaking" around behind our backs to talk to our grandmother certainly didn't get him any points.

We ourselves were also pretty sure he was going to be boring, and he was nearly as old as OUR parents, and Aunt Kate was only fifteen years older than we were (although it seemed much more because of how she took care of us). From Aunt Kate's stories, Tony sounded a lot more fun - like one of us trapped in an adult's body, like Robin Williams in "Jack" or something. We were sure Uncle Jethro was going to be an old, boring adult.

Before Grandfather died, he'd admonished us and our uncles to take care of Grandmother and our aunts. We'd just assumed that with all the guns she wore when she was at work, and the fact that she'd protected the President, no one would try anything funny with Aunt Kate. We'd seen plenty of her boyfriends in our time come and go. We certainly hadn't counted on her LETTING some guy do that, especially some old wheezer like Uncle Jethro looked like in the photos.

H-ll, he had gray hair, and we weren't even sure he wasn't in the Just for Men club.

Grandmother told us to behave ourselves. We wouldn't hurt the man, we promised. He'd walk away without a scratch. Physical scratch.

When they arrived that weekend, we greeted Aunt Kate with (manly) kisses and offered to take in her luggage. Grandmother nodded at us approvingly as she ushered Aunt Kate in to look at a new painting she'd gotten a few months ago, leaving us in the garage with the man who wanted to marry our aunt.

Alan handed out latex gloves to Bill and to Charlie as he put his own on. He gave Uncle Jethro a look, then tugged up on the back of Uncle Jethro's sports jacket. "Look at the suit. Sears."

"He's wearing a BRACELET," Charlie huffed, tugging at the metal chain on Gibbs' wrist with a gloved hand.

Bill pulled out a tape measure and measured Uncle Jethro's height. "Only six foot. The lawyer Aunt Kate was dating before him was 6'2"," he said.

"His chest's wider," Charlie replied, spanning Grandmother's cloth tape measure along Uncle Jethro's back.

"Take a look at his hair," Alan puzzled. "Interesting haircut, mister."

"Starting to thin a little," Bill replied, shaking his head. "Maybe he does use Just for Men."

We had up a whole string of ways to be rid of Jethro Gibbs. Our upstairs bathroom had a clear shower curtain, and worse, whenever somebody was showering and the toliet was flushed, the shower water would turn piping hot. We were sure that we could scare the daylights out of Uncle Jethro - whom Aunt Kate said was very private - by parading through the bathroom. Alan and Charlie were going to go in to brush their teeth while he showered, and after they left, Bill would go flush a bug down the toliet. We were also planning next to help Aunt Kate "make" coffee in the morning. We'd managed to scare off more than one irritating boyfriend that way.

Our uncles were coming that noon time, and if we couldn't do it by then, they'd have this loser run out of town by the end of the day.

Uncle John, our middle uncle who was five years younger than Mom, lived nearby in a big house. Whenever they came by, Uncle Jay and his family lived over there. Uncle Jerry, our youngest uncle, generally stayed in a hotel, but this weekend he and his family were staying with us. With our small house, Grandmother gave Uncle Jerry and his family the den in the basement. She gave Bill's bedroom to Aunt Kate and Charlie's to Uncle Jethro, packing the three of us into Alan's bedroom. We didn't mind, not for Aunt Kate - she'd basically helped to raise us, and we loved her to death - but for this stranger...?

"There's no need for that," Uncle Jethro said the minute Grandmother and Aunt Kate had headed downstairs. Surprisingly, he turned correctly to Charlie, picking out the owner of the bedroom without a problem - no small feat with us triplets, considering that our grandparents sometimes mixed us up. "I don't doubt you'd like to sleep in your own bed, and I'll sleep on the floor. Let's take one of those futon mattresses back into your room."

Charlie was stunned. Never quick on his feet, he stared dumbly at him, and then managed, "Huh?"

"I was in the Marines. We were packed like ants on a log in foxholes, and we slept jampacked in planes in pallets slung between cargo seats," Uncle Jethro replied, shaking his head. "I'm totally used to it. And there's no reason for you three to be all packed up like that in one room."

Charlie blinked, then helped Uncle Jethro move the futon mattress back into his room. He came running back in a few minutes. "I don't want to do the bathroom trick anymore," he whispered.

"Yeah," Alan replied, shaking his head. Uncle Jethro was pretty cool if he didn't mind sharing rooms with teenagers.

"It doesn't matter," Ben concluded. "He's most likely had to shower with his Marine buddies all around, anyhow, and in all kinds of cold and hot water. We couldn't faze him."

That was when we decided that we wanted Uncle Jethro as part of our family, and d-mm-t if we wouldn't make sure Aunt Kate wasn't going to lose him.

* * *

We discovered, much to our horror, that Uncle Jethro got up at insane hours of the morning and didn't go to bed until late. It explained, of course, the incessant coffee drinking. But Aunt Kate always needed her sleep, and SOMEBODY had to entertain him. We devised a rotating schedule, where Alan and Bill got up early with Uncle Jethro until Aunt Kate woke up. Bill took an afternoon nap - his first since preschool - and then he and Charlie would stay up with Uncle Jethro while Alan went to bed early so he could wake up early enough the next morning.

We all learned how to make strong coffee really fast.

"Aunt Kate is generally up early," Alan would say at their breakfast, when they watched the sun come up. "She had to, because of us."

"We'd be up running around," Bill would continue. "She'd cook us breakfast sometimes. She's a really good cook."

"I'm sure she is," Uncle Jethro would smile.

"She'd bake us stuff a lot for after school," Charlie would say that afternoon, opening up a tin of peanut butter cookies. "She makes all kinds of cookies and cakes and pies, and she can make them from scratch if she has the time. She's a great baker."

"So I noticed," Uncle Jethro would chuckle.

"She's good with kids, too," Bill would add. "She helped Grandmother and Grandfather raise us. Grandma used to say that she didn't know how they'd keep up with us without Aunt Kate."

Aunt Kate, however, was less than impressed.

"Mom," she complained to Grandmother. "Jethro'll think my own nephews are trying to get rid of me."

"A man his age ought to be wiser than that, hon," said Grandmother mildly.

"They sound like they're trying to sell something," Aunt Kate groaned. "Me."

"It just means they want him to stay around. Remember what they did to that lawyer you brought home?"

Aunt Kate rolled her eyes. "Do you know what else they're doing? They keep running around turning off the lights in whatever room Jethro and I go into. 'Saves electricity,' they say. Then they crank up the air conditioning and when I asked them to turn it down, they say something like 'I'm sure you two can find other ways to keep warm'!"

"Honey," Grandmother consoled her. "Be glad. They like Jethro."

"MOM!"

"I will talk to them, honey. But stop worrying."

* * *

Uncle Jay had four kids, and Uncle John two, most of them in elementary school. They had been instrumental in running off Aunt Kate's pilot boyfriend when she brought him by. But now we were afraid that they'd scare off Uncle Jethro, too.

It got worse. Uncle Jerry had four children - two sets of twins. The first set was three, the second, two.

It was impossible to keep a handle on them. They weren't bad - they were just EVERYWHERE. We'd turn off the lights, and then a few minutes later there would be a loud crash and then crying, because apparently one of the twins had been playing hide and go seek under the couch and then couldn't see the table when she was crawling out. She'd spent the rest of the afternoon happily snuggled in Aunt Kate's lap or wedged between our aunt and Uncle Jethro, refusing to play with anybody else.

With Uncle John and Uncle Jay's kids here too, it was still a constant running in and out. That all our little cousins loved Uncle Jethro was clear - whether or not it was going to help us keep him as our newest relative was far less so.

"'Ncle Jet-ro, can you zip me up?" (It was eighty degrees outside.)

"Uncle Jethro, can you tie my shoe?"

"Uncle Jethro, can you read us a bedtime story?"

"Uncle Jethro, carve me a wood animal too!"

"Uncle Jethro, can I sit by you at dinner?"

"Uncle Jethro, can you cut my meat?"

"Uncle Jethro, want some SEAFOOD?" (Which was followed by the kid opening his mouth and showing him mushy, chewed up food.) "Seafood? Get it?"

"Uncle Jethro, I want to ride in your boat!"

"Uncle Jethro, do you LIIIIIIIKE Aunt Kate?"

"Uncle Jethro, my bear got a booboo. Can you kiss it?"

"Uncle Jethro, I got a booboo. Can you kiss it?"

"'Ncle Jet-ro, I's hot! Can you unzip my jacket?"

No amount of candy could keep them from leaving Aunt Kate and Uncle Jethro alone to have some time together. We promised to let them play with us on our video games. We promised loads of ice cream when their parents weren't looking. We tried tying them to the furniture.

At evening time, Aunt Kate and Uncle Jethro went outside to walk, and it was like a day care center out on a field trip. Each of the older children were in charge of a younger child, and Aunt Kate and Uncle Jethro each carried one of the youngest twins because they didn't want anybody else. When they got back to the house and sat down on the porch swing, we watched in horror as both sets of twins crawled into their laps and Uncle Jay's kids happily wedged themselves in between, with Uncle John's at their feet. It was awful.

Even at nighttime it was never ending.

"'Ncle Jet-ro," whispered a small voice from the kitchen doorway.

Uncle Jethro and Aunt Kate turned from their seats in the porch swing to see one of Uncle Jerry's two-year-olds standing in the doorway with his stuffed dog.

"Hug'n tiss?" he whispered, tiptoing out to the bench. He got a hug and a kiss from each of them. Beaming, he went back into the house.

Uncle Jethro put his arm around Aunt Kate's shoulders and settled in for a quiet night.

Aunt Kate just laughed at him. "You are truly an only child."

"What?"

Two minutes later, Uncle Jerry's other children stood at the doorway. "WE WANT HUGS TOO!"

We finally complained to Grandmother about the children ruining Aunt Kate and Uncle Jethro's time together. She just laughed and laughed. When we complained about it to our uncles, they just said, "Good. Those two aren't supposed to be getting romantic."

"Grandma," Alan groaned when Grandmother wouldn't do anything. "We like this boyfriend and don't want him to leave! Aunt Kate brings home some losers sometimes."

"Another loser," Uncle Jay grumbled.

"He's a nice boy," Grandmother reprimanded her oldest son.

"Not a boy," Uncle John retorted. "Look how old he is! He's older than Jay, even!"

Uncle Jay whacked his younger brother in the head.

"Kate likes him," Grandmother replied.

"Kate also liked those ugly bell bottoms and you let her have them," Uncle Jerry retorted.

"He's a good man and he loves her."

"Of course he does," Jay snorted. "Look at her. She's young and gorgeous and he's old. He'd never get another shot."

"He's hot for a middle aged guy," retorted Uncle John's wife, and our other aunts agreed. Grandmother laughed. Our uncles glared.

"Thank God for those kids," Uncle Jerry muttered. "Without them who knows what baby Sis would be doing with that old geezer."

"You PLANNED this!" Uncle Jerry's wife was not happy. "You wanted to stay at your mother's house so our children could disrupt Kate's love life!"

"You like it here!" Uncle Jerry defended himself.

"This is not about me!" she roared. "This is about Kate and what you are doing to sabotage your sister's love life!"

It didn't take long for a big fight between our uncles and their wives to break out.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Grandmother finally said quietly, sipping her tea, looking quite calm and collected. We supposed that having raised five children - three boys, too - and then us three triplets, there was little to faze Grandmother. "I think Kate finds the children rather endearing."

"Huh?"

"Look," Grandmother said reasonably, hiding the smirk on her face. "Kate might be independent, successful, with a mind of her own. She might carry three guns and be able to knock out men, but she loves children, you know that. I think she finds Jethro's ability to juggle this many children...well, rather endearing." She smiled benevolently at her sons over her cup.

Uncle Jay looked like he was going to throw up. Uncle John looked horrified. Uncle Jerry ran out to get his children.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Wedding**

Disclaimer in Part 1

* * *

We were happy, of course, that Uncle Jethro liked our family so much that he stayed. But he still wasn't doing well about the marriage. Like they were supposed to, they went to counseling with the padre, Father Klein, whom Uncle Jethro had known for a long time - since the divorce from Seven Iron #2. He was a nice, actually funny priest, and a great guy all around.

"So, Kate," Father Klein began, leaning forward with a gentle smile. "Why do you want to marry Jethro?"

Aunt Kate opened her mouth, then closed it, and took a deep breath. She smiled, and then she said softly, "Well, when we first met...he...was intelligent, bold." She paused. "And he's not intimidated by the fact that I carry a gun. Guns. It's...rare. A lot of men get scared off when they hear what I do."

Father Klein chuckled and nodded. "Go on."

"Jethro is...he's so kind and sweet."

Father Klein blinked, quite successfully masking his doubt and his surprise.

"It...it comes out in different ways," our aunt continued. "It's very quiet, very subtle, but he can be so sweet."

Father Klein looked slightly puzzled, but he looked at her with a very concentrated look and nodded seriously. "Really."

"I've just felt so...comfortable with him," Aunt Kate continued. "He...he has this very quiet, subtle sense of humor, too. He makes me blush but he makes me smile."

Father Klein blinked, but said as encouragingly as he could, "So you think Jethro is...kind, sweet, and funny."

Kate smiled and nodded. Father Klein tried to mask his surprise. Gibbs muttered, "Rule #7. Always be specific when you lie."

"Are you lying, Kate?" Father Klein asked immediately.

"NO!" Aunt Kate exclaimed, horrified.

"Oh," Father Klein replied, obviously relieved. "Well, then that was beautiful."

Aunt Kate tried to recover her composure.

"Jethro, why do you want to marry Kate?"

There was a long silence.

"Jethro?"

There was a long pause, and Uncle Jethro looked briefly like a deer caught in the headlights.

Father Klein took a long look at him. "I'll assume we're going with the traditional vows and not writing our own." He paused. "So. Both of you work at very demanding jobs. Have you discussed how you will schedule time for each other?"

"We will certainly take time to talk," Kate nodded firmly. "We're going to schedule that in."

Father Klein nodded, then waited. Kate poked Gibbs in the leg. "Jethro?"

"We...will work on communication," he said vaguely.

"Uh," Father Klein replied, standing up. "Uh, I'm...um...quite busy. Let me just say, Jethro, that marriage requires a lot thought, which I believe you know. To make it work, you two must learn to communicate with each other. Whether you really wish to take this chance again, Jethro, you need to be sure. You owe it to Kate and to yourself." He looked at his planner. "Oh good! Prison visit. Go right ahead...and...stay and talk. That means you, Jethro. You, too."

Aunt Kate turned to Uncle Jethro and glared.

* * *

Father Klein, of course, wasn't ready to let the matter go. He was concerned that something might be wrong, and he certainly didn't wish to see either our aunt or Uncle Jethro hurt, and so he called Uncle Jethro in a few days later to have a quiet chat.

"Jethro," Father Klein said patiently. "I got the sense that perhaps you're not as prepared for this as you ought to be."

Uncle Jethro just groaned.

"Jethro, you have to make a decision. YOU."

Uncle Jethro finally exploded. "I can't do it myself!" He threw up his hands. "This marriage thing - Father, I am NOT good at it. Every time I consider it the little voice in my head goes" he raised his voice to an unchararacteristically Gibbs high-pitched voice "'What are you, an idiot? You didn't get enough pain and torture the first THREE times?'"

Silence ensued after that outburst, and the two men just sat there for a long, still moment.

Father Klein blinked. "Your little voice is a sarcastic Tweety Bird?" At his parishioner's look, the padre sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just unlike you." He paused. "I would have thought that your little voice would sound something like James Earl Jones or - "

"FATHER!"

The padre just sighed. "I'm sorry." He paused. "Jethro, you've made decisions on your own."

"Oh yes. That's true. I've made brilliant decisions. I married three women who all decided to leave me, most of them whacking me with sports equipment on the way out. Yes," Uncle Jethro replied tonelessly. "I ought to trust my keen instinct."

"Then why did you go so long with Miss Todd?"

He sighed. "I love Kate. But I would never have had had the guts to ask her if there hadn't been that pressure."

"From Kate?" Father Klein asked, surprised.

"No...from Ducky," Uncle Jethro grumbled. "'Jethro, I want to make sure there's somebody to take care of you before I die. I'm not going to be around to stitch you up constantly!'"

Father Klein coughed, trying not to snicker. He straightened and then said in a serious tone, "So what made you ask her in the first place?"

"I don't know," Uncle Jethro mumbled. "It was a bad idea from the start. Our schedules. Being agents. Romance between agents doesn't work." He paused. "Me."

"And the others?"

"They wouldn't say a thing," Uncle Jethro continued. "They didn't want to get caught between us if something happened."

"I'm sure the Todd family wasn't much help."

"Her brothers kept making allusions to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes," Uncle Jethro grumbled.

"So...you decided to call up Miss Todd yourself, hm?" Father Klein waited, and seeing the other man's expression change, he continued, "You two had just had a huge argument over her agreeing to be reassigned by the director." Father Klein waved. "And despite all this, you still asked her. And you've dated two years, and you haven't run. See? You can trust your instincts. Go home and ask yourself if you can and you want to do this again."

Uncle Jethro did go home, and he did think about it long and hard. (He sure hadn't planned on telling anyone about his self-examining session, but Aunt Kate basically dragged it out of him the day of the wedding: he'd been smiling the entire ceremony. Aunt Kate was sure that meant he was roostered on scotch, because she'd never seem him smile that much in one place at one time, and Uncle Jethro had to admit to the whole story to reassure her.)

He thought about all his marriages, what had gone wrong with his choices, what he had done wrong in his relationships and how he didn't want to do this again.

And then he thought about Aunt Kate, and what he knew about her, and how she was different from the mistakes he had called wives. And now he knew why he'd been "dumb" enough to try this all over one more time.

(And then Uncle Jethro went and threw all his sports equipment into the trash.)

* * *

The days BEFORE the wedding went without fanfare. To us, Aunt Kate looked like a gigantic snowball in that dress, but she liked it and so did Grandmother and our aunts and everyone else, so it's not like any of us had much opinions about the matter.

We got to stay with Uncle Jethro that week before the wedding. During that time, he seemed pretty tense, and boy, were we afraid he'd call it all off.

Uncle Jay was supposed to pick up Father Klein and almost forgot. Aunt Kate accused him of forgetting on purpose, but Uncle Jay swore that he really meant to remember. Aunt Kate didn't believe him and sent along a coworker to make sure Father Klein arrived. He drove so fast that Agent Tony, who was riding in the car with him, threw up all over his tuxedo, and then he had to get that cleaned and rent a new one.

In the meantime, Uncle John and Uncle Jerry went to Aunt Kate's room and give her three thousand dollars, a thousand from each of them. "For when you come to your senses and leave him," Uncle John had said. Aunt Kate hollered. Aunt Mary, Uncle John's wife, started grumbling at that point that she should have used the two hundred dollars her father had given her for that same purpose.

We were all waiting in the sanctuary, ready to go. Father Klein was even here, ready to begin the ceremony, but still no Uncle Jethro or Aunt Kate.

Aunt Kate is the punctual type, and Uncle Jethro is a stickler about being on time, so everybody was a little concerned when neither showed up in the chapel at the appointed time.

That was when Uncle Jay exploded and said he was sure that Jethro Gibbs was up to no good and had run off with an impressionable Aunt Kate to Las Vegas.

When Director Morrow heard that they were both late, he called the NCIS security guards to make sure they weren't at work.

When Agent Tony heard "impressionable" for Aunt Kate, he started laughing so hard his stomach hurt.

When Abby heard "Las Vegas", she asked if she ought to book tickets for everybody.

When Dr. Mallard heard "up to no good", he stood up and lectured Uncle Jay about not knowing Jethro.

When we learned of the absences, we pointed out that our aunts and our grandmother still hadn't appeared, either, and why would they be going to Vegas?

When all of our female cousins, who were little flower girls in the wedding, heard that the wedding might not happen, they cried.

It turned out that Mauren Ingalls, our aunt's and our uncles' cousin from Alexandria, had brought her kids to the wedding. They had all been outside, playing in the sandbox in their nice little kid suits - all those who weren't in the wedding (who were inside crying about the wedding that had been delayed). Cousin Maureen's kids told our little cousins that after Aunt Kate and Uncle Jethro married, they were going to move far away and they'd never seem them again.

If a zillion kids covered in sand weren't enough, they came running in, crying. The littlest ones ran straight to their mothers, but the older ones decided to head straight to the source. It took half an hour to calm down all the sobbing children, and then another half hour to get the sand out of Aunt Kate's dress and Uncle Jethro's tuxedo.

In the meantime, while everybody was waiting, Agent McGee removed his tie and one of the relatives' kids accidentally set it on fire when he dangled it too close to one of the candles at the front of the church.

Uncle Jethro finally appeared at the front of the church, and we all turned to see Aunt Kate standing in the back, her hand in the crook of Uncle Jay's arm. Uncle Jay had his hand over Aunt Kate's protectively, and he walked her up the aisle.

When they got to the front, Father Klein smiled down at them. He asked who was giving Aunt Kate away. Uncle Jay looked like he was going to say something smarta but didn't - most likely because the heat from Aunt Meg's glare from the second row had a fifteen mile burn radius.

Aunt Kate started to pull her hand from Uncle Jay's arm, and look stunned when Uncle Jay just stood there, looking at Gibbs and clutching his sister's hand like he was hanging on to his daughter's in the face of a bank robber. Aunt Kate tugged harder, and Uncle Jay let go.

"We are gathered here today to marry Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Caitlin Suzana Todd," Father Klein began. "If there is anyone here who knows any reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, let them speak now or forever hold their peace."

Grandmother glared at her sons, daring them to open their mouths.

- x - x - x - x - x -

Throughout the ceremony, Uncle Jethro was smiling widely (which was kind of scary). It was all quite beautiful and immensely boring, and we were trying to be on our best behavior, sitting beside Grandmother.

Thankfully it was going pretty fast, but it just wasn't going fast enough for the ringbearer. Michael was Uncle John's, the only boy they'd managed to sucker into participating in the wedding. He was being unusually quiet, sitting beside his mother in the first pew.

Normally, we were always grateful that Mikey had the uncanny ability to amuse himself. Now, as the wedding dragged on, Mikey started exploring his mother's purse, taking out one thing, examining it, and then putting it back. Like a typical child, the money and the credit cards weren't that entertaining. The keys came out, then went back in. The lipstick went untouched, deemed too boring. But a bottle of his mother's lotion was considered well and good.

Happily intrigued by the tube, he turned it around and around. His mother was preoccupied, watching the wedding. Mikey popped the flip-top cap and silently squirted a small bit of lotion into his hand.

Then he kept squirting, happily piling up the lotion until it reached a baseball-sized green glob in his hand and threatened to spill over the edges of his chubby fingers.

Grandmother glared at us for laughing, but we couldn't help it. Alan's eyes began to water.

Mikey was now sitting in the pew, very still, looking concernedly at the huge, heaping puddle of lotion in his hand, apparently wondering what he was supposed to do with all the lotion. He poked at it with a chubby index finger. He looked around, wondering what to do with all that lotion, and then decided the pillow holding the rings was an appropriate place to dump the excess. What remained on his hand he patted onto his face and onto his hands, covering all visible skin with a thick layer of light green slop.

Just then Father Klein asked for the rings.

There was a stunned silence for a moment, everyone staring at Mikey, sitting with the pillow on his lap, and green lotion all over the pillow and his face and his hands and smelling like a gigantic cucumber and melon (what kind of melon, we never found out...Aunt Mary just glared at us when we asked). The wedding stopped as Agent DiNozzo and Abby Sciuto went to fish out the rings and was them off, and the whole church was giggling.

What was strangest, though, was Uncle Jethro - he never did any more than just smile, and here he was laughing - laughing so hard both he and Father Klein had to sit down. Aunt Kate teetered between laughing at Mikey's lotion episode or being shocked at her husband-to-be's behavior.

When Abby and Tony returned with the cleaned off rings, Uncle Jethro and Aunt Kate said their vows, and then Father Klein folded his arms in front of him and announced, "I have something to say."

Uncle Jethro never looked more worried in all the years we've known him.

"I have known Jethro Gibbs for a long time," Father Klein began. "Longer than even his agents have." He paused. "We came over on the Mayflower together."

Tony laughed outright. "Mayflower. That's pretty funny. It means - " When Uncle Jethro glared, he quickly shut up.

"I had my doubts about this decision," he continued. "But I have to say that I was wrong." He took a look at our soon-to-be uncle, about to say something insightful, and then just stopped and smiled. "Well, this may come as a great surprise to many of you, but I have never seen Jethro look more happy than he does now."

Our uncles had gone into the marriage sure that our Aunt Kate was making a huge mistake - but any doubts about Uncle Jethro himself basically vanished at this moment.

* * *

To be quite honest, the one thing we learned from attending Aunt Kate's wedding was that this wedding stuff was for the women. We were so bored we almost hoped one of the kids would set something else on fire. We were hoping that we might actually get to taste champagne for the first time at the reception, but Aunt Kate wasn't one to be fooled, and neither was Grandmother. The closest we got to any kind of alcohol was standing next to Abby, one of Aunt Kate's bridesmaids, in the wedding photo - Abby in her "wine" colored dress.

So we thought it was awesome when we discovered Agent Tony was the one giving the toast. Aunt Kate used to joke that she and Uncle Jethro had made the horrible mistake of allowing Agent DiNozzo to make the toast at the reception, but we thought it was rather funny.

"I was thinking a lot about today," he began, his voice solemn and serious. "About my boss, and how he had the courage to take this step - again," he added to a few small titters. "About my coworker, and how she had the courage to marry my boss." There were a few more small, nervous laughs. "And I thought about how much money I blew on this tuxedo rental." There were laughs now. "And I thought, 'Who here is responsible for bringing together Gibbs and Kate?' In other words, 'Who can I give this tuxedo rental bill to?'"

He cleared his throat. "After Kate officially left our team to be trained as a profiler and to lead a NCIS profiling team, we didn't see her for almost six months. We wouldn't have seen her if it hadn't been for the Hewitt case, and so, I thought, that serial killer Hewitt. Hewitt counts as...bringing my boss and Kate together." He coughed. "So...if you don't mind, I'll bring a big piece of wedding cake to maximum security...and eat it in front of him."

There was laughter, and then Tony continued, "So then I thought about Kate and Gibbs...and how neither of them would ever break the fraternization rules," he said pointedly to the face of the director, who sat amusedly at a table near the front. "And so that's when it hit me. If Director Morrow hadn't reassigned Kate and took her out of Gibbs' chain of command, then we wouldn't be here. So, we all owe Director Morrow a big thank you."

After the applause, Tony - who was notorious for trying to get NCIS to pay the bills for his expensive suit clean-ups after mishaps on the case - said, "So I thought I'd submit my tuxedo bill to the director." He looked eagerly at Morrow.

Morrow just gave him an amused, "don't even think about it" look.

Tony sighed. "Well, it was worth a try." He straightened, still holding his champagne glass, and then said, "Gibbs always tells us that romance between agents doesn't work, and his rule #12 said never to date a coworker." He held up his champagne glass. "Here's to Boss eating crow. And many more."

All our aunts had tears in their eyes, and Grandmother dabbed at her eyes as Uncle Jethro and Aunt Kate intertwined their arms and each took a sip from their glasses. And, well, as mushy as it is, it was kind of nice, seeing them: Aunt Kate smiling up at Uncle Jethro, and him looking back at her gently, his soft, half-smile on his face.

* * *

_Aunt Kate smiled up at Uncle Jethro, and he looked back at her gently, a soft, half-smile on his face. "How could you doubt I wanted to marry you," she said quietly, her dimples deepening as her smile widened. _

_"I'm still not sure this isn't a dream I'm about to wake up from." _

_Behind them, their daughter and their oldest son were taking turns whapping each other with their stuffed animals and giggling with each hit, and one of the baby twins was busy making dirty footprints on their headboard while drinking from his bottle. The other was busy poking at his father's glasses with the nipple of his bottle, dribbling milk all over the nightstand. _

_She chuckled, long and soft, and kissed him on the cheek. "Sweet dreams."_

**END**


End file.
